In his Aug. 21 regular meeting, Union County Sole Commissioner Harold Collins honored county employee Johnny Holbrooks, who has retired after nearly three decades.
“I would like to recognize Johnny Holbrooks for 29 years of service to Union County Government,” Collins said. “Johnny came to work for Union County on May 23, 1996, when Glenn Gooch was commissioner.
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“He worked in the courthouse doing general facility maintenance. When Harold Cook took office, Johnny went out doing more and more general maintenance on county facilities. Around 2001 he was made the head of the Maintenance Department.
“Then, when Union County took over the operation of the Transfer Station, he was placed over there due to his experience and his dedication.
“Mr. Holbrooks has been a valued employee of Union County for over 29 years, and we would like to honor that commitment. Thank you, and we hope you enjoy retirement by relaxing and maybe doing a little fishing.”
For his part, Holbrooks said he would like to thank all the commissioners he has worked for, “allowing me to try to do what I could do for this county.”
“I’ve lived here all my life, and this place means the world, this county does,” Holbrooks said. “I’ve tried to do everything I could within my powers to do a good job. Because I’ve got some medical issues, I just thought I’d be better off to just go ahead and get on my way and let somebody take my place.”
Holbrooks received a round of applause, with several people saying “thank you” from the audience, and one man telling him, “Johnny, you made a difference.”
HOSPITAL ROUNDABOUT
Collins delivered a notice of award to contract with Blairsville-based Colditz Trucking Inc. for construction of the “Union County Pat Haralson Drive Roundabout Project.” The $1,527,268.32 contract is expected to be approved in the next county meeting, at which time a construction start date should be available.
The roundabout is aimed at easing traffic congestion and improving safety at the busy intersection of Pat Haralson Memorial Drive and Deep South Farm Road, which provides access to the Transfer Station and the extensive campus of Union General Health System, including Union General EMS.
This project has been in the works for several years; it was publicly announced in April 2022 alongside a $1 million state grant award from the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank. Earlier this year, Collins extended the drawdown date for the grant to July 2026.
The County Road Department and Blue Ridge Mountain EMC have already completed some work at the intersection, including tree clearing and the installation of new power poles to redirect utilities for construction.
Once completed, the roundabout will change the traffic pattern there that currently features Deep South Farm ending in a one-way stop at Pat Haralson Drive, requiring motorists coming from, say, the hospital to turn either left or right from a stop sign to exit onto Haralson Drive.
Union General donated much of the land required for the roundabout, and Collins purchased about 5,000 feet of right of way and roughly 2,500 feet of construction easement from resident Gary Davenport for $67,000 in the Aug. 21 meeting.
BRIDGE MAINTENANCE
Union County has been working with the state to get local bridges up to snuff, including the trimming of vegetation and prioritizing repairs. Canada Creek Bridge in Suches is one of the bridges prioritized for immediate repairs, and Collins accepted an agreement to that end.
Geo-Hydro Engineers Inc., a regular partner with the county, will be performing subsurface exploration and geotechnical engineering evaluation of the bridge replacement on Canada Creek Road for $7,000.
Additionally, County Manager Tony Hughes said the Commissioner’s Office had received the Georgia Department of Transportation report for Spiva Cove Bridge off Richard Russell Scenic Highway, and repairs are now required.
“We’ve got two stages on that bridge,” Hughes said. “We’re going to have to do an immediate repair. We’re going to have to replace the steel grating and the flooring on it before they condemn the bridge. So, we’ve got that process.
“We’ve got a local business that’s going to replace the steel grating on it … They’ve got to fabricate the grating, so it’s to take about five to six weeks to get that grating in to do that job. Later on, a bridge company can actually come in and do the other repair on the bridge.”
IMPACT FEE STUDY
Collins signed an agreement with the Georgia Mountains Regional Commission to conduct an Impact Fee Study. The agreement will cost the county $5,000, with a term running Aug. 1, 2025, through Jan. 31, 2026.
During his campaign for commissioner last year, Collins floated the idea of a one-time Impact Fee for all residential and commercial building permits “to relieve current taxpayers of the additional costs to expand county services (Law Enforcement, Fire/EMS, Parks, Public Facilities, and Roads) required as a result of the new development.”
He said in his Town Hall Meeting in April that he would first study the issue to determine if offsetting the effects of new development on county services would best be served by impact fees.
Also in the Town Hall, Collins noted that his early thinking was that impact fees, if imposed, might only be levied against the development of very large homes of more than 5,000 square feet.
OTHER BUSINESS
Collins signed an $82,117 contract with the University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc. for the performance of a “Community Wide Strategic Plan.”
The amount was paid out of Union County Development Authority funds and makes good on a previous obligation under the dissolved Development Authority regarding a 50/50 match to secure a grant to pay for the plan.
“This strategic plan will help with our new budgeting process along with providing myself, staff and Union County Development Authority with information on the direction our community wants us to move in,” Collins said.
Switching gears, the commissioner held a first reading of proposed revisions to the County Code of Ordinances pertaining to telecommunications.
County Attorney William Mercer explained the revisions simply clean up some of the original ordinance language from the early 2000s, which the county felt was necessary amid “talk of a new cellphone tower coming through because we don’t have great reception.”
“There is a section for ‘preferred sites’ that has always been in there for nearly 25 years for where we would like cell towers to go that don’t interrupt the beauty of these mountains,” Mercer said. “Unfortunately, it’s written in a way where it’s very ambiguous.
“It says you can do these things, and then later sections it says you have to do these things that contradict the ‘preferred’ sections. So, what we’re actually doing right here is cleaning this up, and it just takes a few sentences to clean it up to let you know that preferred means preferred.”
The Commissioner’s Office will be scheduling a required public hearing for feedback and potential changes to the proposed revisions before the second reading and subsequent adoption of the finalized revisions.
Among other business, Collins accepted a quitclaim deed and owner’s affidavit from the State of Georgia for 1.29 acres of land that North Georgia Technical College has agreed to provide to the county for needed extra parking at the Union County Senior Center. The cost was $10.
“We will be moving forward with creating additional parking for that facility in the future,” Collins said.
He also finalized the abandonment of Old Ivy Log Road “as it no longer serves a public purpose.” It has been decades since the 0.55 acres of Old Ivy Log Road was used by the motoring public, and the county was no longer maintaining that portion of the roadway.
Q&A
Among several questions asked during the public Q&A, one resident wondered when the Recycling Center at the Transfer Station would start accepting #3-#7 plastics, and County Clerk Jennifer Mahan said that was expected to begin around the middle of September.
Two other residents stepped up to the microphone for information about the Union County Farmers Barket Dog Park. The residents had attended a meeting with the commissioner recently to discuss his plans to relocate the park.
One of the residents asked where the new dog park would be located.
“We’re still looking at a couple of sites,” Collins said. “And when we decide, we will have one finished before we close the (Farmers Barket) down. It won’t be like it will be closed six months before you can take them to another park, and it will be as nice, it will just be in a different location.”
The other resident wanted to know if Collins had any plans for the old dog park space once the relocation was completed, and Collins responded, “Not in the near future, no.”
Collins’ election call for a FLOST referendum in November was covered in last week’s edition of the newspaper.
As a reminder, the Commissioner’s Office has scheduled a Town Hall Meeting to continue educating the public on FLOST. The Town Hall is set for this Thursday, Sept. 4, at 6 p.m. inside the Union County Schools Fine Arts Center.
